Hale revealed the matchups on today’s radio show, and MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the bookings with event sources.

Bellator 42 takes place April 23 at Lucky Star Casino in Concho, Okla., and the night’s main card airs on MTV2.

The tourney winner, who will be crowned in May, earns $100,000 in total pay and becomes Bellator’s first-ever light-heavyweight champion.

At Bellator 38, Carpenter scored a split-decision win over Daniel Gracie to remain undefeated. He now meets M’Pumbu, a French fighter of Congolese descent who upset Chris Davis via third-round TKO. He now is 6-1-1 over his past eight fights.

Hale, a longtime Rage in the Cage fighter who’s lost just once in his past 14 fights, scored an early candidate for 2011 World MMA Award “Submission of the Years” honors when he submitted Nik Fekete with an inverted triangle choke. He takes on Linderman (9-1 MMA, 1-0 BFC), a former heavyweight who extended his win streak to four with a TKO victory over tourney favorite Raphael Davis.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?